John Ford directed 12 films before this title, released on 22 April 1918. The violence, the action sequences, the critique of racism and visible class tensions make The Scarlet Drop stand out. Above all, there is one iconic scene to which Howard Hawks paid homage in Rio Bravo (1959).
It is the story about two families: the Calverts, wealthy landowners in the south of US, and the Ridges, poor peasants who depend on hunting. When war is declared, Kentucky Ridge tries to enlist, but is rejected and humiliated, so he becomes an outlaw. Harry Carey made 26 films with Ford, between 1917 and 1936. They developed a kind of character who is not a hero, but an antihero, and this archetype will be fundamental in the construction of Ford’s work. The director was on the side of the outcasts, never the winners, and Carey projects both rudeness but, at the same time, fragility and an unkempt appearance. We can feel in this movie his vulnerability and his attachment to his mother. What a great actor he was. The secondary characters show us Ford’s universe, so we are immediately at home, waiting for the director to take our hand and start the journey.
It is a very complex film if we consider the budget, the shooting plan and the genre. The Scarlet Drop goes beyond simple entertainment and gives us a glimpse of the visual elements that will become characteristic in Ford’s work. Ford always was Ford, combative and politically incorrect. We have the opportunity now to see this film, which was lost for almost 106 years until it was found in Chile, in a warehouse that was going to be demolished. By watching this film we will be able to recognise the values of the era of the American Civil War, the figure of Lincoln, and of the mother and the theme of redemption – all factors that make Ford’s vision of US history so unforgettable.

Jaime Córdova

A “trick film” intended to replace the Ladies, Please Remove Your Hats slides often seen in early Nickelodeons. It features a comic theatre scene where oversized hats disrupt the audience. A 1975 MoMA version, which circulated widely for 50 years, included speculative edits and the anachronistic use of a traveling matte.
In 2024, the Film Preservation Society produced a new 4K restoration from both MoMA’s 35mm elements and a paper print preserved at the Library of Congress. The latter allowed a better understanding of the film’s original structure and the inclusion of otherwise decomposed scenes. This research was conducted by myself and Benjamin Solovey, who led the restoration.

Tracey Goessel

A comedy inspired by the Alphonse and Gaston comic strip, features two overly polite Frenchmen (Arthur Johnson and Charles Avery) whose minor dispute over an olive escalates into a mock duel. The film satirizes early 20th-century social decorum through exaggerated gestures and slapstick humour.
Restored in 2022 from a 35mm positive made from the original nitrate negative, preserved at the MoMA, the restoration addressed chemical decay and surface damage. The original intertitles were lost, but were reassembled into the film based on the Biograph Production Records and Biograph Bulletins, preserved at the Library of Congress. The restoration work was carried out by Ruxandra Blaga under my supervision.

Tracey Goessel